History many times over has shown when war and internal conflicts erupt, communities are forced to flee their homes and leave behind all they cherished until, if ever possible, the time and conditions re-align to return. In such conflict zones with countless uprooted communities news of refugees often gets more coverage in the media. Yet, alongside them are internally displaced people (IDPs) seeking as much help if not more, and not to mention can be significantly larger in number. Research also shows the majority of these groups end up being women and children exacerbating the problem and adding to the urgency. None the less, such post-conflict zones with widespread need seldom receive sufficient support for resettlement, from basic shelter and food to achieving a resemblance of some self-sufficiency. Shelter in post-war zones is a critical issue. But, due to challenging conditions on the ground like shortage of resources against the high demand among others, organizations participating in the rebuilding and assistance effort often resort to temporary and transitional settlements. Unfortunately, such displaced populations end up living in these potentially deteriorating settlements for many years with their lives at a standstill, while support and resources dwindle. The matter of creating shelter being of architecture, a question then follows how can architecture alleviate the problem of resettling displaced populations in post-war zones? And in the process how can it help communities restore what they lost and potentially establish a better future? And is there perhaps a practical approach to resettlement that spurs a positive change in motion to what would be a long process of rebuilding a community and then a nation as a whole? The issue of post-war resettlement being a complicated one, and requiring many hands, this thesis strives to propose a resettlement model from an architectural standpoint. As a case in point, the thesis looks at the extensively damaged city of Raqqa in Syria, following the ongoing civil war of more than 7 years. The thesis furthermore aims to propose a model that can serve as a catalyst towards much-needed rebuilding in this historic city and beyond. Besides this, the thesis makes an effort to identify and translate what post-war resettlement specific to the area in question could mean and design a communal campus at the end of which. Also, contrary to a temporary relief typology, the thesis attempts to break down and respond to some of the contextual issues present through targeted questions of why what and how towards a potentially evolving and flourishing housing and community rebuilding campus. / Master of Architecture / In the aftermath of conflicts and war, communities are forced to abandon their homes along with all they cherished into the worst of circumstances that leave them in limbo for many years. A majority of these displaced populations become Internally Displaced People(IDP) while others become refugees in near and far lands. Adding to that, women and children make up nearly 80% of these groups. Yet, during and post-conflict, the support for resettlement continues to be a no match to the extensive need created from basic housing to reaching a level of self-sufficiency as communities rebuild their lives piece by piece. While issues surrounding post-war resettlement are intricate and need all resources possible, this thesis identifies and puts forward a proposal towards architectural responses. Particularly looking at one of the extensively bombed city of Raqqa in Syria, the thesis furthermore suggests a model that can be a catalyst towards the extensive need for rebuilding communities against the predicament that continue to cloud the hopes of the nation and its people. Besides this, the thesis brings forth solutions potentially suitable for a post-war campus taking into consideration material resources to human factors like labor. The thesis, unlike temporary and transitional shelters that could leave behind settlements into a slum-like state, proposes a permanent rebuilding model to help lay a foundation to what is urgently needed and will be a long term undertaking.

At the end of 2016, approximately 65.6 million individuals were displaced forcibly around the world because of generalized violence, persecution, violation of human rights, or conflict such as civil war (UNHCR, 2016). The purpose of this study is to: (a) explore Syrian refugees after displacement in the US, (b) give voice to refugee fathers, and (c) advance knowledge for marriage and family therapists, who are working with refugee families. Eight Syrian refugee fathers who were displaced in the last two years and living in Indiana, US shared their experiences through in-depth interviews. After transcribing and translating the interviews, thematic analysis, a flexible research tool that provides a reach and complex account of data, was used to analyze the data. Four main themes emerged from fathers: displacement stress, loss of extended family connections, experiences of isolation, and identity changes with provider role. A thematic map also is created illustrating how the stress of displacement and being far away from extended families profoundly influence provider identities and family interactions. In addition, the contextual model of family stress is used to customize fathers� experience of displacement. The inferences from this study provide guidance for marriage and family therapists, mental health practitioners, and organizations working with refugee families. / PHD / Just imagine you have to flee your home country, leaving all your physical and non-physical possessions and belongings or even members of your extended family behind, witnessing the death or missing of a significant or loved one, resettling in a new country and struggling to obtain a new social status, coping skills and suffering a stigma against your nationality. These are just a portion of the adversities that refugee fathers have endured (other family members suffer in different ways) in host countries such as the US. Syrian refugee fathers in this study were forced to live in a new country wherein they cannot speak the language and have to rely on their children to communicate with others. As the only providers of their families in Syria, they struggle with financial strains. Consequently, their wives (almost in half of the cases) have to work outside the home in order to cover the household expenses ideally; they could rely on their extended family’s help and support if they were in their own country. Such experiences are stressful for Syrian refugee fathers with damaging effects for their identity as fathers and their family dynamics. Family therapists, mental health practitioners, and organizations working with refugee families can benefit from findings of this study to provide better services for their targeted populations.

As specialized materials are developed for various applications, it becomes desirable to test them under adverse conditions, such as at elevated temperatures and in harsh environments. It is increasingly important that sensors be developed to meet the growing needs of research and industry. The ability of sapphire to withstand elevated temperatures and many chemically harsh environments has long been recognized. However, currently available sapphire fiber possesses poor optical quality and is not available with a cladding. It has found use in a variety of temperature sensors, but the investigation of sapphire-based strain and displacement sensors has been limited. The primary development of a white-light Michelson interferometer that utilizes a sapphire fiber sensing head is presented in this thesis. Development includes efforts to combat the poor optical quality of the sapphire fiber, minimize polarization mode fading, and preferentially excite the fundamental mode of the sapphire fiber. This thesis demonstrates the feasibility of fabricating a Michelson white-light interferometer capable of measuring displacements in environments ranging from room temperature to 800 degrees Celsius. The sensor developed in this work is capable of measuring displacements exceeding 6.4 millimeters at room temperature, and exceeding 1 millimeter at 800 degrees Celsius. This thesis also presents the application of this sensor to the alignment of a sapphire-fiber based Fabry-Perot sensor. This technique allows the Fabry-Perot sensor to be aligned so that usable fringes are always obtained. Alignment of the sapphire-fiber based Fabry-Perot sensors has been considered prohibitively difficult. / Master of Science

Research on unit load stability aids manufacturing facilities in selecting the most efficient load stabilizer when shipping their products to market. This study's objective was to compare the performance a variety of different commonly used load stabilizers to stretch hooding. Stretch hooding is a method of load stabilization in which a tubular film is heat sealed at the top, stretched by four mechanical arms to a desired width, pulled down over the unit load. The film is slowly released as the arms descend, and is released under the pallet. 400ga stretch hooding, 80ga and 63ga stretch wrap and strapping were tested. Twenty unit loads for both vibration and impact testing were used, with 5 replications per load stabilizer. Container displacement and pallet-container displacement were measured, and the number of tares in the load stabilizer film, on the corners of the test units, after testing, was noted. Container displacement was significantly greater during impact testing than in vibration testing. Strapping was the most effective stabilizer during vibration testing because of its ability to restrict vertical displacement. The stretch hooding was the most effective stabilizer during impact testing because of its ability to restrict horizontal displacement. / Master of Science

As the proliferation of AI technologies has increased, so has the widespread fear of an obsolete workforce whose jobs have been automated. This paper investigates the impact of AI on the unemployment rate across 55 countries, including an in-depth analysis of the heterogeneous impacts on developed and developing countries. Our study includes 55 countries divided into 28 developed and 27 developing from 2010-2020. We conduct a panel data analysis using two-way fixed effect models to assess the relationship between the two variables and their significance. The main results show that AI has a positive significant relationship with the unemployment rate, which validates the doomsayer's view of negative disruptions to the labour market. Further analysis shows that the countries that will suffer the brunt of AI proliferation are the developed countries whose analysis, unlike the developing countries, showed a positive significant relationship between AI and the unemployment rate. After multiple robustness checks, we find that the results still hold to an extent and that the effects of AI will mainly be felt in the developed world. The paper calls for policymakers to distribute the gains from AI equitably and create a framework for possible digital capital taxation to protect workers from the fallout of the impact of AI.

By researching natural disaster displacement and the process in which we rebuild, I have found that by creating a modular prefabricate unit that is both cost efficient and easy to construct, we can significantly reduce the rebuild time, reduce people from leaving, as well as encourage new residents to move to the effected area. It is important as an architect and designer to use our skills to better help humanity. By focusing on the effects of Hurricane Harvey in the Houston Area, I have developed a unit design, and infrastructure plan that can be used universally around the world to help effected cities and people survive after a natural disaster. These findings are useful in the fact that the United State has no universal plan when dealing with disaster events. By creating a plan to provide single and multi family units, and incorporating them within close distance to necessary needs and infrastructure, this plan has the potential to reduce rebuild time, and encourage economy growth. / Master of Architecture / The value in which this thesis will bring to humanity is the implementation of a modular disaster relief structure that anyone can build. It will be able to be constructed in four days, by two people with no previous construction experience. Implementing this plan will help speed up the rebuild process after a natural disaster. This will create one universal unit and infrastructure implementation plan to provide residents of an affected are the resources needed to survive in the case of an event such as a hurricane or flooding.

Este texto apresenta um método alternativo de regressão que é denominado regressão L1. Este método é robusto com relação a outliers na variável Y enquanto o método tradicional, mínimos quadrados, não oferece robustez a este tipo de outlier. Neste trabalho reanalisaremos os dados sobre imóveis apresentados por Narula e Wellington (1977) à luz da regressão L1. Ilustraremos os principais resultados inferenciais como: interpretação do modelo, construção de intervalos de confiança e testes de hipóteses para os parâmetros, análise de medidas de qualidade do ajuste do modelo e também utilizaremos medidas de diagnóstico para destacar observações influentes. Dentre as medidas de influência utilizaremos a diferença de verossimilhanças e a diferença de verossimilhanças condicional. / This text presents an alternative method of regression that is called L1 regression. This method is robust to outliers in the Y variable while the traditional least squares method does not provide robustness to this type of outlier. In this work we will review the data about houses presented by Narula and Wellington (1977) in the light of the L1 regression. We will illustrate the main inferential results such as: model interpretation, construction of confidence intervals and hypothesis tests for the parameters, analysis of quality measures of model fit and also use diagnostic measures to highlight influential observations. Among the measures of influence we will use the likelihood displacement and the conditional likelihood displacement.

Darbo objektas: kineziterapijos poveikis. Darbo tikslas: Nustatyti šlaunies raumenų jėgos, apimties ir judesių amplitudės pokyčius, taikant kineziterapiją, patyrus šlaunikaulio lūžį su poslinkiu ir be jo. Darbo uždaviniai: 1. Nustatyti ir palyginti šlaunies raumenų jėgą, patyrus šlaunikaulio lūžį su poslinkiu ir be jo, po 24 dienų kineziterapijos. 2. Nustatyti ir palyginti klubo sąnario judesių amplitudę, patyrus šlaunikaulio lūžį su poslinkiu ir be jo, prieš kineziterapiją, po 12 ir 24 dienų kineziterapijos. 3. Nustatyti ir palyginti šlaunies raumenų apimtį ir skausmą, patyrus šlaunikaulio lūžį su poslinkiu ir be jo, prieš kineziterapiją, po 12 ir 24 dienų kineziterapijos. 4. Įvertinti judėjimo funkciją ir savarankiškumą, patyrus šlaunikaulio lūžį su poslinkiu ir be jo, prieš kineziterapiją, po 12 ir 24 dienų kineziterapijos. Išvados: 1. 24 dienų kineziterapija turėjo teigiamą poveikį šlaunies raumenų jėgai patyrus šlaunikaulio lūžį su poslinkiu ir be jo. 2. 24 dienų kineziterapija turėjo teigiamą poveikį šlaunies lenkimo amplitudei patyrus šlaunikaulio lūžį su poslinkiu ir be jo. Patyrus šlaunikaulio lūžį be poslinkio, po kineziterapijos šlaunies lenkimo amplitudė buvo didesnė. 3. 24 dienų kineziterapija neturėjo reikšmingo poveikio šlaunies apimčiai ir skausmui patyrus šlaunikaulio lūžį su poslinkiu ir be jo. 4. 24 dienų kineziterapija neturėjo reikšmingo poveikio funkciniui mobilumui ir savarankiškumui patyrus šlaunikaulio lūžį su poslinkiu ir be jo. / The Object: effects of physiotherapy. Aim of study: To determine thigh muscle strength and circumferences, hip amplitude of the movements changes in patients after femur fractures with and without displacement using physiotherapy. Goals of study: 1. To determine and compare thigh muscle strenght after femur fracture with and without displacement after 24 days of physiotherapy. 2. To determine and compare hip amplitude of the movements after femur fracture with and without displacement before physiotherapy, after 12 and 24 days of physiotherapy. 3. To determine and compare thigh circumferences and pain after femur fracture with and without displacement before physiotherapy, after 12 and 24 days of physiotherapy. 4. To assess movement mobility and independence after femur fracture with and without displacement before physiotherapy, after 12 and 24 days of physiotherapy. Conclusions: 1. 24 days of physiotherapy had a positive effect on thigh muscle strength suffered femur fracture with and without displacement. 2. 24 days of physiotherapy had a positive effect on thigh flexion amplitude suffered femur fracture with and without displacement. Suffered femur fracture without displacement, the thigh flexion amplitude was higher after physiotherapy. 3. 24 days of physiotherapy hadn’t significant effect on thigh circumferences and pain suffered femur fracture with and without displacement. 4. 24 days of physiotherapy hadn‘t significant effect on movement mobility and... [to full text]

Establishment of relationships for predicting the lateral drift demands of near-fault ground motions is one of the major challenges in earthquake engineering. Excessive lateral drifts caused by earthquake ground motions are the major causes of structural damage observed in structures. In this study, some of the fundamental characteristics of near-fault ground motions are examined. Response characteristics of elastic frame structures to near-fault ground motions are investigated. An approximate method for estimating the elastic ground story and interstory drifts for regular frame type structures is presented. Inelastic displacement demands imposed on elasto-plastic single degree of freedom (SDOF) systems subjected to near-fault ground are examined. Three equations for estimating the maximum lateral inelastic displacement demand from the maximum elastic displacement demand are established. Two of these equations relate the inelastic and elastic displacement demands through natural period and strength reduction factor. The third equation relates the inelastic and elastic displacement demands through the ratio of natural period to pulse period and the strength reduction factor. Efficiency of the natural period to pulse period ratio for estimating the inelastic displacement ratio is shown. Error statistics of the proposed equations are presented and compared with similar studies in the literature. According to the results, these equations can be used for quick and rough estimates of displacement demands imposed on regular elastic moment resisting frames and elasto-plastic single degree of systems.

Molecular and functional analysis of small molecule binding to protein can provoke insights into cellular signaling and regulatory systems as well as facilitate pharmaceutical drug discovery. In label free small molecule detection the displacement assay format can be applied. This assay format comprises the displacement of receptor molecules bond to immobilized ligand by a competition reaction with ligand in solution. This is beneficial because displacement of high molecular receptors is detected compared to low molecular ligand as in classical binding analysis therefore potentially lowering the method detection limit. It was hypothesized that with choosing appropriate measuring methods and theoretical modeling reaction rate constants can be determined separately in every kinetic stage of the assay format. Herein elucidating the dominant valence of antibody antigen binding in the established assay was of great importance. Using the Influenza Hemagglutinin (HA) peptid binding to mono or bivalent Anti-Hemagglutinin peptide antibody displacement assay formats could be established. The exact time resolved analysis of binding and dissolution of ligand HA and Anti-Hemagglutinin peptide antibody was achieved with surface plasmon resonance (SPR) spectroscopy. Mathematical models could be developed from kinetic equations of ligand binding to mono or bivalent antibody. With this, an accurate simulation of the SPR results was reached. The simulation plot had to be exactly adjusted to the SPR results to determine all kinetic rate constants defining ligand and receptor binding kinetics. Large variations in receptor concentration gave almost identical rate constants in binding; this proves the quality of SPR measurements and demonstrates consistence between measurement, simulation, and binding model. Maximum decline of SPR response could be used to determine ligand concentrations in analyte. Displacement dependence from antigen concentration was found to be exponential and was explained by rebinding. Kinetic data and models could be transferred for the simulation of almost stationary displacement assay formats realized with impedance and fluorescence spectroscopy. With the obtained results it was possible to detect the displacement of the bacterial signaling autoinducer AI-2 by a displacement assay format using periplasmic binding protein LuxP as receptor. Concluding it can be said that the hypothesis could be proved and the obtained results can facilitate the use of displacement assay formats in biosensing. Displacement assay formats should be especially interesting in small molecule detection and in compact integrated mass sensitive sensor designs suitable as mobile sensors in outdoor screening. / Die Analyse des Bindungsverhaltens niedermolekularer Liganden an Proteine ist für die Aufklärung von biologischen Regulationssystemen oder bei der Suche neuer medizinischer Wirkstoffe von Wichtigkeit. Ein markierungsfreies Detektions¬prinzip zur Erfassung niedermolekularer Liganden ist die Displacement- oder Replacement-Methode. Bei dieser tritt die Bindung des Rezeptors an den immobilisierten Liganden mit der Bindung an freien Liganden in Konkurrenz, sodass anstelle der niedermolekularen Liganden die hochmolekularen Rezeptoren detektiert werden können. In dieser Arbeit wurde von der Hypothese ausgegangen, dass durch die Auswahl geeigneter Messverfahren und der zugeordneten Modellierung die einzelnen kinetischen Stadien des Displacements separat zur Bestimmung der kinetischen Konstanten der Displacementprozesse genutzt werden können. Dabei sollte unter anderem auch eine Aussage über die dominierende Valenz der Antigen-Antikörper-Bindung erreicht werden. Hierzu wurden auf der Basis des Modellsystems Hämagglutinin-Peptid/ Hämagglutinin-Antikörper Displacement-Assays mit mono- und bivalenten Anti-körpern entwickelt, anhand derer eine genaue zeitaufgelöste Analyse des Bindungs- und Ablösungsverhaltens vom Liganden HA an den Anti-HA-Antikörper (Rezeptor) mittels Oberflächenplasmonenresonanz(SPR)-Spektroskopie erzielt wurde. Ausgehend von den Reaktionsgleichungen zwischen Liganden und mono- und bivalenten Rezeptoren wurden mathematische Modelle entwickelt, die eine exakte Simulation der SPR-Ergebnisse ermöglichten. Durch genaues Anpassen der Simulationsplots an die Messplots konnten alle Ratenkonstanten, die die Kinetik der Reaktionen zwischen Liganden, Rezeptoren und ihren Komplexen bestimmen, ermittelt werden. Da auch für eine große Variation der Rezeptorkonzentrationen in der Analytlösung nahezu identische Werte für die Ratenkonstanten erhalten wurden, ergeben Messungen und Simulationen ein konsistentes Bild der Anbindungskinetik und bestätigen die Qualität der Messungen. Aus Messungen des maximalen Responsabfalles kann die Konzentration der freien Antigene beim Displacement ermittelt werden. Man findet eine exponentielle Abhängigkeit des Displacements von der Konzentration der freien Antigene, die sich durch den sogenannten „Rebindingeffekt“ erklären lässt. Die gewonnenen kinetischen Daten und entwickelten Modellierungsverfahren konnten zur Simulation quasistationärer Detektionsverfahren, die mit Fluoreszenz- und Impedanzspektroskopie durchgeführt wurden, erfolgreich angewandt werden. Die erzielten Erkenntnisse konnten auf ein wissenschaftlich herausforderndes biologisches System (LuxP/AI2) angewandt werden, bei dem das niedermolekulare Signalmolekül AI2 über ein Displacementassay detektiert wurde. Dieses System ermöglicht einen Einblick in die Intra- und Interspezieskommunikation bei Bakterien. Insgesamt zeigt sich, dass die hier formulierte Hypothese als bewiesen angesehen werden kann. Die in dieser Arbeit gewonnenen Erkenntnisse eröffnen verschiedene Einsätze der Displacementmethode in der Biosensorik. Insbesondere lassen sich damit kleine Moleküle markierungsfrei quantitativ bestimmen, ohne hoch präzise Analysengeräte einsetzen zu müssen. Damit ergibt sich die Möglichkeit, sehr kompakte integrierte massensensitive Sensoren, die nicht die Empfindlichkeit hochempfindlicher SPR-Spektrometer erreichen, zur Detektion kleiner Moleküle einzusetzen. Dies ist besonders für mobile Anwendungen von Interesse.